The Comenius/Grundtvig in-service Training Grants January 2012

Below  find  the email as a reminder of the Comenius/Grundtvig in-service training grants application, which will expire on January 16, 2012 please:

Dear colleague,

We would like to remind you and your colleagues that the deadline of the LLP National Agencies to apply for  for the below specified courses will expire on the 16th of January 2012.
1)EFFECTIVE USE OF WEB-BASED APPLICATIONS IN TASK BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING.  (Comenius/Grundtvig code: NL-2012-266-002). Dates and location: 1st to 8th of July 2012, to be held at the Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende, Bruges, Belgium.
2) INDUCTION AND GUIDANCE OF NEWLY APPOINTED TEACHERS. (Comenius/Grundtvig code: NL-2012-264-002). Dates and location: 1st to 8th of July 2012, to be held at the Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende, Bruges, Belgium.
3) DIGITAL AUDIO AND VIDEO IN LANGUAGE TEACHING. (Comenius/Grundtvig code: NL-2012-268-002)
Dates and location: 12th to 19th of August 2012, to be held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
We strongly advise you and your colleagues to check your LLP National Agency specific procedures and to send us your pre-registration form as soon as possible.

We would also like to kindly ask you to, please, forward this information to colleagues and friends who might be interested in taking advantage of this opportunity.

Should you have any further questions or should you experience technical problems in opening the above mentioned web pages, please, do not hesitate to contact us at office@amsu.edu or Tel: +31 20 620 0225; Fax: +31 20 624 9368.
Looking forward hearing from you and receiving your application!
We wish you a a very positive 2012!

Yours sincerely,


Ruggero Lala
Director of Programmes
T +31 (0)20 62 00 225
F +31 (020)62 49 368
office@amsu.edu
www.amsu.edu

Learning a Foreign Language

Learning a foreign language involves learning a lot of grammar rules and vocabulary and creating a conversational environment to practice them. It is different from learning a second language in some aspects: first, if you learn a language in its natural environment and have to use it as you need to do, that is called “learning a second language”, which can be accepted to learn a language naturally and unconsciously as we do while learning our own language. Second great difference is you don’t have to memorise a lot of boring grammar rules to speak it as you have to do to learn a foreign language in a country where that language is not spoken.

What’s funnier, you learn a lot of rules about the language but you cannot speak it yet. As you are far away from the country it is spoken, you are lacking in practising it. It will likely take your years to speak a language fluently without thinking.

If you are talented enough, that is, if you are a language person and you have a good memory, you can use lots of ways to learn to speak the language in an effective way. I am saying “to speak the language” because it is the last step in learning a foreign language but "speaking" is the first step in learning our mother tongue after listening and understanding phases.

Learning a new language plays a very important role in one’s life. As we learn a language, we also learn a new culture, new life views so it is almost equal to developing yourself. If you live in the country where that language is spoken, you are lucky but that does not mean that you don’t go to a language course, or get some tutoring to learn it well.

Whatever the case is, never give up learning a new language and do your best to practise it. As a simple example, don’t we all get pleasure saying “I love you” in different languages? So have fun while learning!